macbeth

[sweetness1733]

so i read the first act of macbeth and i understand most of it but i need some help
i need to know what a rhyming couplet is, is macbeth more afraid of his punishments now or in the hereafter, and i need to write out a paraphrase of macbeths soliloquy from act 1 scene 7 lines 1-12
if you could please help me id be so grateful

[ahighschoolgirl]

a couplet is 2 ryhming lines of iambic pentameter; a iambic pentameter is the rhym of the lines. Each line has 10 syllables, and every other syllable is stressed. For example, da DUM da DUM da DUM... Each syllable is called an iamb. Each pattern is called a foot. Because blank verse has five iambic feet in a line, the pattern is called iambic pentameter.

[mewize]

There is nothing that says a couplet has to be held to the limitations of iambic pentameter. What follows is the dictionary definition, but effectively, it is 2 lines that rhyme and are of similar length. As in
'Walk over
Pet rover.'
Couplet/kup"lit/
n.
1. a pair of successive lines of verse, esp. a pair the same length that rhyme.
2. a pair; couple.
3. any of the contrasting sections of a musical rondo.
[1570-80; < MF; see COUPLE, -ET]


If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly: if the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch
With his surcease success; that but this blow 5
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We'ld jump the life to come. But in these cases
We still have judgment here; that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return 10
To plague the inventor: this even-handed justice
Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice
To our own lips.

These are the 12 lines of the soliloquy that you spoke of. It seems that MacBeth is going through the pangs of conscience. He wants it over quickly or not at all, for he knows full well that what goes around comes around.

And to stop the rumors about blank verse that was started here, I will add a definition for blank verse as well.

blank verse
n. unrhymed verse.
[1580-90]